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Angela Liddon knows what it’s like to lose control. During her university years, the Milton, Ont., resident struggled with disordered eating and poor body image. She was obsessed with calorie counting and fanatical about the number on the scale. By her own admission, she often restricted her food intake to gain a false sense of control. Then when her body couldn’t take it any longer, she started binge eating. In the process, she gained 25 pounds and felt completely unhealthy.

It was a long and painful journey but one Liddon finally got under control by learning the fundamentals of healthy eating and embarking on an exercise program. It also taught her a lesson about self-sabotage.

“People think if they slip up they’re totally falling off the wagon and can’t get back on track, but a lot of that is mental,” says Liddon, who now blogs about healthy living at ohsheglows.com. “If people focused on the fact that a few slip-ups aren’t really sabotaging yourself — you can get back on track — then I think people would do better.”

Despite the best intentions, most people who embark on a fitness or nutrition regime end up falling off course along the way. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the towel. By understanding what happened, changing your attitude and setting more reasonable goals, the risk of self-sabotage can be eliminated altogether.

According to Toronto psychologist Kate Hays, most people fall off the wagon because they set weight or diet goals that are too difficult or unrealistic. They also neglect to think through the resources and supports they need to meet their objectives, then give up when an obstacle gets in the way.

Nikki Peck, a canfitpro fitness instructor and wellness consultant in Dartmouth, N.S., says much like any significant change, people are often afraid of what their new life will look like once they lose weight. They haven’t prepared for the change psychologically and so, subconsciously, look for ways to abort their mission.

“Until those emotional issues are addressed, every effort you ever make will in some way be sabotaged because there’s this fear of success or fear of failure,” says Peck, who says women in mid-life are the worst offenders.

Another form of self-sabotage is what Curtis Medina, a Milton-based personal trainer and canfitpro instructor, calls an all-or-none attitude. People equate improvement with restriction and that fosters negativity. They also tend to concentrate on one facet of their health — their food intake — and neglect everything else, such as exercise and overall nutrition. When they get hungry, they pack it in.

Instead, Medina recommends creating positive behaviour by displacing instead of restricting. Simply put, if you want cheesecake, have a salad beforehand because it will fill you up and you will eat less cheesecake. Be sure to set positive landmarks and go at it slowly.

Hayes urges people to look at their motivation to diet. For instance, is it focused on losing a certain amount within a set period, or is it about developing a healthy diet that will also help to lose weight and keep it off? Next, they should examine their eating and exercising patterns, what they do when temptation strikes, and how they reward themselves because “everyone has to be their own cheering section.”

And they have to set realistic goals, keeping in mind what strategies worked in the past and what didn’t. Hays advocates keeping a progress journal because it helps individual stay focused and provides data useful when the decision is made to adjust the program as necessary.

In the end, it all comes down to proper planning — something Peck says fails to happens every January when the hordes rush into the gym looking for a quick fix. To combat sabotage, she says, take a hard look at your lifestyle. Can it handle change? Have you addressed any outstanding emotional or psychological issues? Did you set realistic long- and short-term goals? Failing to plan spells disaster, she says, so be sure to start out on the right foot.

“With dieting, when you want to increase your chances of success, have a small change and get your body used to it,” adds Medina. “Then have another small change and have your body get used to it. If you do those small things, you’re not going to sabotage because you’ll only have positive behaviour patterns. It actually becomes a lifestyle. You’ll actually want to do it.”

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